Avoiding network strain when moving to the cloud
When it comes to cloud computing, we’re as enthusiastic as the next guy. But, for all the good the cloud brings, the technology is not without its challenges. As more businesses turn to the cloud to take advantage of potential cost savings, improved IT efficiency and greater productivity (the list goes on), there are issues of which a company must be mindful.
One such issue is the cloud’s effect on a company’s infrastructure. It’s understandable that businesses may be inclined to ignore their networks when moving to the cloud. After all, one of the major points about the technology is that it lets a third party deal with the nitty gritty.
IMS, an IT Manager, and a vacation
Sometimes the easiest way to explain a new technology or a new concept is with a story. Not that infrastructure management as a service is all that new anymore, but how Virtela is delivering IMS to its customers is, well, another story.
We put together a short video that follows Bob, an IT Manager for a fast growing company. As the company grows, new branch offices, users, and applications are being added. In other words, Bob has more devices, vendors, networks, and carriers to manage. As a result, Bob spends his time fixing problems instead of proactively avoiding issues – he has no time to work on strategic projects. Needless to say, Bob is stressed out – and could really use a vacation!
Is my network optimized?
To answer this question, a thorough network assessment is needed to understand to current situation of network traffic – knowing what devices and applications are on the network and how they affect network performance.
Specifically, the first step is a Knowledge Transfer engagement where we learn about the customer’s network infrastructure, network map, configuration, etc. before beginning the network assessment, as well as a detailed configuration and performance audit. As part of the program, the entire network is scanned to identify any chronic issues, faults, configuration mismatches, patch update history, network topology, etc
Virtela takes on the “Windy City” at IT Roadmap
This year’s IT Roadmap Chicago definitely had more emphasis on the cloud than in the past—that’s good news for Virtela.
Our VP of Marketing, Liza Adams, presented at the event and spoke on Using the Cloud for Faster Apps, Robust Security, & Proactive Management. It was reassuring to hear positive feedback from the attendees. One audience member applauded that Liza’s presentation demonstrated how to approach and solve IT issues for multinational companies, instead of sounding like a sales pitch.
The votes are in! Top 10 IT Priorities for 2011
More than 400 IT professionals at multinational companies responded to Virtela’s recent survey on top IT infrastructure priorities for 2011 and improvement areas for managed service providers (MSPs), and the results provide an exciting glimpse into the year ahead.
Topping the list of priorities are infrastructure management, security, data center consolidation, application acceleration and cloud solutions. Not surprising, really. Having just come back from PTC ’11 where cloud services seemed to be a recurring topic of conversation amongst our global partners, to the customers we speak to on a daily basis, cloud solutions are in high demand given their ability to deliver better, cheaper and faster ways to meet security, application acceleration and other needs. And with today’s IT leaders being tasked with security and compliance initiatives on top of the ongoing management and monitoring of networks, data centers, application speeds and overall business efficiency – it’s no wonder they ranked these as their top priorities for 2011.
What will be the top IT priorities in 2011?
Although I hear from customers on a weekly basis about what works, what doesn’t work, what they plan to do next and what services/features we should develop, I always look forward to market survey time. It’s like a big brain dump from customers and prospects. Developing services and marketing them is 100% more fun when you know exactly what the market wants. And more importantly, our customers are happier.
Last year, we polled IT leaders and professionals and asked them in what areas would they like to see improvements from managed network service providers. It wasn’t any new feature, functionality or service that IT leaders wanted. The top 3 areas of improvement were:
- Offer more value for the price
- Timely communication of status and issues
- Better understanding of requirements